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Trump's Mail-In Ballot Battle Heats Up As First Wave Goes Out Today; Soon: Judge Expected To Question Holdout Juror In Clancy Trial; Longtime Anchor And Trump Ally Maria Bartiromo Out At Fox News. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired September 04, 2026 - 07:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[07:30:05]

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Breaking this morning the price of diesel climbing to a record high as the war with Iran continues to disrupt the global energy supply. The national average now $5.85 a gallon. That is up more than $2.00 from a year ago. And this could also mean higher transportation costs for a lot of everyday goods.

CNN's Matt Egan joins me now. And Matt, look, there's always a focus on gas prices, but diesel is especially critical for the industry. Just can you its place and how people should be thinking about this all-time high here?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah, absolutely, Omar. Look, this is just another shock to the system and it's just going to make the cost of living get even worse.

So before the war started, diesel wasn't a problem, right? It was selling for --

JIMENEZ: Yeah.

EGAN: -- a little less than $4.00 a gallon. But look at this now, getting closer to $6.00 a gallon. And yes, this is blowing past the prior record that was set back in 2022 under President Biden after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Now, to your point, gasoline, right, that gets all the attention, right? That's the in-your-face barometer on the cost of living. But diesel -- I mean, diesel is the MVP of fuels, right? It is the silent workhorse that really powers the modern economy.

This is the fuel that's powering the trucks and the trains hauling the stuff that we buy online. The ships bringing stuff in from overseas. The tractors that farmers are using to produce fuel. The construction vehicles that are making everything from data centers to houses and everything in between.

So why is this happening? Well, this is very much related to the war. One factor is the situation with oil, right? Oil prices back above $90 a barrel. So that's part of it.

But the bigger problem is that we've got this global refining shortage right now. Three of the world's four big refining hubs -- they're facing shortages right now. We're talking about the Middle East because of the war, Russia because the conflict with Ukraine, China is limiting its own exports. That only leaves the United States to do all of the work, and U.S. refiners are already producing as much as they can.

Now, it's not just the level of prices that's historic, it's the percentage increase, right? We're looking at a more than 60 percent increase in the cost of diesel so far this year alone. Going back on stats to go to the year 2000, this is easily on track to be the biggest annual percentage increase on record.

And Brown University's Climate Solutions Lab -- they're estimating that just because of diesel alone, consumers are paying $44 billion more for energy so far this year --

JIMENEZ: Wow.

EGAN: -- just since the war started. That's about $340 per household.

And then when we look geographically, this is really a problem across the country. Out west, over the last year, we've seen a significant increase in the price of diesel. More than $2.50 in California, over $2.00 in Nevada, New Mexico. Also in the heart of the country, Texas and Ohio. And then on the East Coast, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina as well.

Analysts are warning that in particular, those East Coast states from Virginia down to Florida -- that supplies and stockpiles are very short. And so that does suggest that we're going to see even bigger price increases ahead, if not outright problems trying to get hands-on diesel in parts of the country.

So look, bottom line, Omar, this is not going to get as much attention as, let's say, $5.00 gas would.

JIMENEZ: Sure.

EGAN: But from an inflation standpoint, this is arguably an even bigger problem than $5.00 gas would be.

JIMENEZ: Would you call diesel the MVP of fuel?

EGAN: Absolutely.

JIMENEZ: All right. So you don't want that at record highs like we're seeing.

EGAN: Exactly.

JIMENEZ: Matt Egan, appreciate it.

EGAN: Thank you, Omar. JIMENEZ: Good to see you -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thank you so much, gentlemen.

The first mail-in ballots of the midterms are going out today to voters in North Carolina, even as President Trump is urgently fighting tooth and nail to get the Supreme Court to OK his new rules that make sweeping changes to mail-in voting.

Elections officials in several states have been clear, saying they simply cannot comply with those changes to mail-in ballots in time for the midterms, which are just two months away, by the way.

The whistleblower who came forward this week gave a stark warning as well that the new verification system for ballots at the post office is rushed and untested.

Joining me now is CNN political analyst Alex Thompson. Thank you so much for being here this morning with us.

Give us just some sense. You know, the president will not let this go, even though the Supreme Court initially shot this down and they said, OK, there's some things that we'll look at. Now he's going full bore saying, hey, review all of this.

How disruptive might this be as ballots are going out today in one state?

ALEX THOMPSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, AXIOS: Yeah, Trump has installed many political allies or, you know, very, you know, ideologically friendly people to what -- to the United States Postal Service, which is usually, you know, really a place for more, you know, technocrats, bureaucrats, nonpolitical people. And it is because Trump has never let go of his obsession over the 2020 election.

[07:35:12]

Now, based on just what the United States Postal Service Union said, not even one Postal Service person has been even trained on this new system, which gives you an indication that, you know, it's unclear how disruptive it will be to this election. Now, this could all just be sort of a test run for the 2028 election.

So just because North Carolina won't comply, while Wisconsin won't comply, while all these other states have said that this is a non- starter, that does not mean that this is not going to be a huge issue in the next presidential election.

SIDNER: Yeah, depending on what the court determines here, certainly it could be an issue in this one and in upcoming elections. We will have to wait and see what the Supreme Court says if they weigh in.

I do want to talk to you about Vice President JD Vance saying yesterday that what's happening between the United States and Iran is not a war because major combat operations only lasted six weeks despite the fact that just this week the two countries traded strikes with one another.

Why is the Trump administration so afraid of calling this a war?

THOMPSON: Well, we're seven months into what was supposed to be a six- week war. And the reason they don't want to call it a war is because, legally, you need Congress approval -- congressional approval if you're actually in a war. You know, these are sort of semantic games for legal reasons, not reflecting the reality on the ground.

There have been strikes back and forth, you know, with Iran continually, you know, over and over again. I think anyone that's being objective would say that this is a war with Iran. Even people that are very sympathetic to the White House, that have worked in the White House, and Republicans that I have talked to, you know, when they're behind closed doors, they call it a war.

SIDNER: Yeah, I mean, 18 service members have been killed, hundreds have been injured, and they're trading strikes. It looks like a war. It is a war.

Let me ask you about this. This just came out from the Wall Street Journal. It's a pretty damning profile by The Wall Street Journal about Senator John Fetterman. The headline reading this. "Behind closed doors, John Fetterman shows little interest in the work of a senator."

And it sort of details at the very beginning how he snubbed several paralyzed veterans who wanted to discuss legislation that would improve care for wounded service members by agreeing to a meeting with them, but then kind of ghosting them, saying he was sick only to end up on Fox News an hour later.

He's also siding with the president on things like data centers. You hear him criticizing Democrats, certainly more than Republicans.

What are you seeing here and why is this really significant because of the position he holds in the Senate?

THOMPSON: You know, part of this is personally sad because people that have worked with John Fetterman that I've talked to say that he never recovered from the stroke he suffered during the campaign in 2022. But he's still a senator, and obviously, constituent services don't seem to be top of mind, which, you know, is troubling for people in Pennsylvania.

But why is it even more significant on the political landscape going in? Even if Democrats win big this fall -- let's say they, you know, get 51 Senate seats. There's been a campaign going on by Trump, by David McCormick, his fellow Republican senator from Pennsylvania, to convert John Fetterman to a Republican, or at least to an independent that caucuses with Republicans, which could swing the entire majority after 2020 -- after the elections this fall.

Even if Democrats win big, if John Fetterman decides that he wants to be an independent or a Republican going into his 2028 re-election, he could swing the entire majority of the Senate. He could keep Republicans in control, you know, in the final two years of Trump's term.

SIDNER: Yeah, it is quite significant.

Alex Thompson, thank you so much for coming on. Appreciate the conversation. Have a great weekend -- Omar.

JIMENEZ: All right. Very soon, jurors in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial will return to court after a dramatic day yesterday. For starters, the jury is still deadlocked, with the defense accusing one juror of refusing to follow the law.

And there were a few striking moments that played out in court, including a tense sidebar exchange between Judge Sullivan and Clancy's attorney, Kevin Reddington, who could also be seen slamming the desk at one point, looking irritated. The judge later denied his request to have the lone holdout juror removed. But it comes as the case inches closer to a potential mistrial.

A lot to talk about here. I want to bring in Susan Constantine. She's a trial consultant and body language expert. She also worked with the jury consulting firm that helped select the jury for Andrea Yates' 2008 retrial.

[07:40:00]

So Susan, you were in court yesterday and you witnessed all of this. It just -- it seemed like some chaotic moments. What did you see?

SUSAN CONSTANTINE, FORMER JURY CONSULTANT, BODY LANGUAGE EXPERT, ATTENDED CLANCY TRIAL YESTERDAY: Well, yeah, I was right there, almost like front and center. I saw a whole thing going on.

You know, when we got into the into the -- into the courtroom, there was a lot of tension, scuttle that's going on. And of course, we're all kind of looking around like what's going on -- this seems different. It's a different vibe than what we felt throughout the trial.

And then all of sudden we have -- you know, Reddington goes up to the sidebar, right, with also defense attorney. He also wheels up, which was just the optics of that, bringing up Lindsay Clancy. And then one by one, each of the jurors are coming out from behind and the judge is asking them questions. And literally the jurors were only just a few feet away from the jurors.

And then we didn't know, and I didn't know what was going on until afterwards, now that they peel off. And then we saw -- I saw, Reddington just -- he was just, you know, slicing and dicing and his face was tense and there was a lot of loud voices and we're like something is definitely happening here. But when everything settled and then we found out that allegedly there was a juror who was the holdout.

And, you know, I've been saying all along that, you know, there's something that's going on. It seems like they understand the juror instructions and the counts, but something seems off to me because they weren't asking any questions until yesterday. Those jury now has spoken and we found out that there's allegedly one of the jurors.

So today -- this morning, wow, we're going to find out what's going to happen with that particular juror. So the judge is going to question him.

JIMENEZ: And on that point, the judge is expected to question --

CONSTANTINE: Him or her.

JIMENEZ: -- that juror today. Sorry, I don't mean to jump in there.

But what will you be looking for --

CONSTANTINE: Yeah.

JIMENEZ: -- in that questioning? I mean, is that unusual?

CONSTANTINE: Well, that's the thing, Omar. I mean, literally, I'm a trial consultant. I've never seen it before. And all of us as trial analysts and legal analysts, we're all going, have you ever seen this before? Is this unprecedented?

So I think he probably will address the entire jury and walk through the instructions, explain what reasonable doubt is, and then maybe question that juror on the sidebar. I don't know. I can't imagine he's going to do this in open court in front of everybody. But then again, there's been so many truths I don't know what to expect.

JIMENEZ: All right. Susan Constantine, really appreciate the insight through all of this. I mean, some really chaotic moments that you witnessed in court today, and we'll see what happens in just a few moments.

Sara, I saw you seconding that. Yeah, I think you're over there.

SIDNER: Thank you so much. We appreciate it.

All right. Famed business anchor Maria Bartiromo turned close Trump ally has been fired from the Fox Business Network after 12 years. She was unceremoniously dismissed without allowing her to say goodbye to her audience.

A sign of her closeness with the president -- he weighed in after learning of her dismissal posting "I can't believe Maria Bartiromo is no longer going to have her great show on Fox News Business. Her fans, of which there are many, will not be happy."

A source close to the matter tells CNN that the main reason for her effective immediate departure was Bartiromo's disclosure of confidential information to the Trump White House.

CNN's chief media analyst Brian Stelter tracking all of this -- all over it. Do you know what kind of information she's accused of leaking to the White House and how this all went down?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Well, Sara, a source familiar with the matter tells me that she leaked some internal guidance, and if President Trump caught wind of this guidance, he was probably ticked off.

So there's some behind-the-scenes shenanigans here that date back to mid-July. Remember the president's primetime address about elections? He pushed conspiracy theories about China in the 2020 election.

And it was noticed right then, that night and the next morning, that Fox News barely touched his conspiracy theories. Fox moved on as fast as it could away from that controversial speech. It was kind of curious. It was kind of like Fox knew not to go down that particular rabbit hole. Even though the network is staunchly pro-Trump in many ways, it sometimes does not follow him down the darkest paths that he wants to go. So, Fox ignored the story, and now we evidently know why.

There was guidance sent out inside Fox News to some of the executive producers saying, hey, don't cover that. Don't go down that road.

Maria Bartiromo apparently wanted to cover that story anyway. She wanted to talk about those conspiracy theories. Maybe she was mad that she wasn't being allowed to. And so she sent the guidance to her friends in the Trump White House. Apparently, there was a screenshot that was shared.

[07:45:00]

When Fox management caught wind of what she did, Fox management considered it a violation of her employment contract.

So what was going on here? Well, it seems to me that Bartiromo, who is one of the president's closest allies, staunchest offenders on TV -- she was trying to say to the White House, hey, it's not my fault that we're ignoring your conspiracy theories. I want to talk about it on TV, but the bosses are not letting me. So she sent this directive, this guidance, over to the White House. Maybe the president caught wind of it -- somebody certainly did -- and called Fox to complain.

It really speaks to how the interests of Fox and the White House do sometimes diverge, even though the network is often pro-Trump. A Fox spokesperson says that Bartiromo's exit is a "business decision", and at Fox, it's always a business decision. So that is what happened there.

SIDNER: Wow.

Brian, thank you so much for breaking that down. It was abrupt and a lot of people noticed it. Appreciate it.

All right. Ahead, protests in Texas after commissioners in a large county vote to dramatically reduce the number of polling places right before the midterms. What's going on there?

And a cop thought a deer was roadkill. But then this happens.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POLICE OFFICER 1: Screaming.

POLICE OFFICER 2: OK, it's good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[07:50:35]

JIMENEZ: New this morning, a key county in Texas just approved a move to slash the number of polling locations ahead of the midterm elections now just two months away. Commissioners in Tarrant County, which is the third largest county in the state and covers Fort Worth, Texas, voted to eliminate 92 polling sites for early voting and Election Day.

And this comes as there's a critical race going on for Senate. It's still taking shape between Democratic state representative -- between James Talarico and Republican State Attorney General Ken Paxton as well.

So joining me now is Alisa Simmons, a Tarrant County commissioner. She voted against this plan. And you say this is about power rather than cost. Why?

ALISA SIMMONS, (D) COUNTY COMMISSIONER, TARRANT COUNTY, TEXAS: Absolutely. So my MAGA colleagues on the commissioners' court made it clear at Tuesday's meeting that they were after power and that their goal is getting to a 4-1 Republican majority on the commissioners' court. And this move makes it harder for people to cast their ballots.

And this is phase two of their effort. In June of 2025, they redistricted the county. So they redistricted me, making it difficult for me to win my precinct 2 seat, which I've been serving in for 3 1/2 years. And so I've decided to run for the county executive seat. But again, this is phase two of their efforts to control the county, and they already have control of the county.

JIMENEZ: And as I understand, the majority stands right now, three to two in terms of Republicans to Democrats on your commission. You correct me if I'm wrong.

But where are these polling places being cut --

SIMMONS: That is correct.

JIMENEZ: -- and who do you expect to be most affected?

SIMMONS: So they're being cut in Black and brown communities and so that's who I expect to -- that's who will be most affected. It's not who I expect will be most affected, that's what the data shows us.

The quarter of Tarrant County zip codes with the lowest poverty rates would have about 15 percent fewer Election Day locations than they had in 2022. But the quarter of zip codes with the highest poverty rates would lose about 41 percent. And right where one of my offices is here in Precinct 2 -- that zip code is 76016 -- has 63 percent fewer proposed Election Day locations than it had in 2022. So that's what it looks like.

JIMENEZ: You know, just to key some folks into the debate that's going on here, the elections administrator there said that these cuts were about efficiency. And Judge Tim O'Hare, who is a part of your commission, said the new proposal still does exceed the statutory minimum in terms of polling locations, adding that some locations were changed because buildings were no longer operable and certain ADA requirements. I also believe the distance between the polling location averages is under two miles or so.

But why are you so confident that this is going to disenfranchise voters in a significant way?

SIMMONS: Because if you look at our turnout during the primary election, we had 40,000 more Democrats than Republicans vote. It was a high turnout primary.

And so you look at the Senate District 9 race. There was a special election for Senate District 9 in which Trump won that Senate district by 17 points. We had a Democrat win that seat in a special election up against two well-funded Republicans. And so voter turnout is going to be high.

Our elections administrator answered my question Tuesday at the podium by saying, yes, I expect record turnout. So my question is, sir, why are you proposing to cut voting locations? And he's doing as he was directed by the MAGA majority on the commissioners' court, unfortunately.

[07:55:15]

So he has made it clear since I've been on this commissioner's court that he could always use more polling locations. He says it from the podium year after year, election cycle after election cycle, but then presents a proposal that cuts polling places by 30 percent. And, you know, he -- that guy has got to keep his job. The balance of power lies with the MAGA guys on the commissioners' court.

And so they're going to send our constituents, our residents, our voters through gymnastics to find polling places. They will experience long lines. They will experience confusion because the cut is significant. We talk about the 2022 midterm and comparing 2022 to 2026 list but in 2024 we had 349 polling locations.

JIMENEZ: And this number dropping significantly less, yeah, and just almost cycle by cycle here.

Alisa Simmons, really appreciate you taking the time. Thank you for being here -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Thank you so much, Omar.

On our radar, in Pennsylvania, seven Good Samaritans pulled off a heroic rescue. They banded together to lift a Volkswagen Beetle off a cyclist who was trapped underneath. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, come on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Let her down. Leave her down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Police say the crash happened after the cyclist tried to pass a car making a right turn. She required surgery and is recovering from chest injuries. Police say it is her though that could face several hundred dollars in fines for that crash.

In Poland, a driver tried but ultimately failed to get his truck out of the way before this happened to it. A train -- oh -- slamming right into it moments before this happened. The driver could be seen trying to back out before trying to pull forward. The train was carrying 250 passengers. Fortunately and amazingly, nobody was seriously hurt, but the truck driver did need to be taken to the hospital.

This Texas police officer got the scare of his life when he pulled up on a deer. Now he assumed that the deer had died but then take a look.

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POLICE OFFICER 1: (Screaming) It's awake!

POLICE OFFICER 2: OK, that's good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: He's screaming there, "Ah, it's awake, it's awake!"

The deer was not dead, clearly -- just, you know, resting. The deer quickly got up and dashed into the woods. The officer dashed the other way. No harm to either of them.

JIMENEZ: Uh, yeah, I jumped --

SIDNER: Surprise.

JIMENEZ: I jumped just sitting here. So look, it's scary out there on the roads for more ways than one. Appreciate that, Sara.

All right. Meanwhile, here we go. Let's focus up here. Toronto emerging as a key tech hub. Major players such as NVIDIA, Google, Microsoft are part of the Canadian city's thriving tech sector. And while Silicon Valley is still the epicenter of the tech industry, the Canadian government is focused on making Toronto a major player.

So to talk about all this, CNN tech reporter Clare Duffy is here with details. So what is this emphasis here?

CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH REPORTER: Well, so what's really interesting is this Toronto ecosystem has really grown up around Geoffrey Hinton, who, as you know, is known as the godfather of AI. He moved to Toronto in the 1980s to do what was at the time sort of unpopular AI research. Well, that research ended up winning him a Nobel Prize and setting the foundation for how modern AI systems operate.

And you've had a number of people moving to the city just to be near him and his research. You've really seen the University of Toronto grow as a center of research for this AI technology. You've also seen AI research institutes popping up. Geoffrey Hinton founded one of those.

Now, as you mentioned, there are major companies that have opened research labs and offices in Toronto -- Google, NVIDIA, Meta, Microsoft, some of the biggest players in this industry. There are also a number of growing startups that are backed by a research and investment industry in Toronto. So we are really seeing this entire ecosystem grow up in this city.

Toronto is now considered the third best tech talent market in the world -- so behind San Francisco and Seattle, but even ahead of New York City.

And I think what is interesting is I went and talked to people -- startup founders -- about why they stayed there rather than going to San Francisco they talk about things like friendlier immigration policies in Canada that makes it easier to hire global talent who are thinking about how to serve a global market. They also said it's just kind of a nice place to live. They talk about good restaurants in Toronto. Social services like good health care and education. And they say that makes this a really good place to live and also a really good place to build an AI company.